The liberal Democrats of “The West Wing” took on terrorism last night – and did little but make pompous speeches.

The highly anticipated episode, which aired on NBC, was the first show of the new fall television season to make reference to terrorism in the wake of the real-life attacks Sept. 11.

Executive producer Aaron Sorkin designed his script, written in the days just after the attacks, to mirror the conversation now under way in the real world about terrorism – its ancient origins, its modern-day causes and effects, and what the government should do about it.

Sorkin made sure that most, if not all, of the bases were covered, but he barely mentioned the military.

In the show, a group of gifted high-school students on a White House tour were gathered in the cafeteria to wait out an emergency in which no one was allowed to leave the building. That permitted the White House staffers to take turns delivering lectures whose pretentious tones made you wonder if Sorkin wasn’t just showing off.

While most of the issues surrounding terrorism were touched on, the role of the military was not. That may have been by design – or it may have been due to the limitations of a storyline that gave only vague reasons for the White House lockdown. An attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center was never mentioned. A plot to bomb LaGuardia Airport was suggested, but it was unclear whether the plan was carried out.

And the show’s main character, President Josiah Bartlet, the Democrat from New Hampshire played by real-life liberal firebrand Martin Sheen, was perhaps seen the least.

He appeared in the cafeteria to look for an apple, and wound up instructing the students on the difference between martyrs and heroes.

“A martyr would rather suffer death at the hands of an oppressor then renounce his beliefs,” Sheen said. “Killing yourself and innocent people to make a point is sick, twisted, brutal dumb-ass murder. . . . A hero would die for his country, but he’d much rather live for it.”

The episode ended with the playing of “For What It’s Worth,” the 1960s protest anthem by Buffalo Springfield.